How do you gain entry into a research setting? What tricks are there to learning the rules of the community without alienating the people you came to study? How are good relations maintained with informants? What happens after you leave the field? In Experiencing Fieldwork top ethnographers address these and other questions, bring fieldwork alive for the reader and provide invaluable advice for those entering the field.
This book investigates how anthropologists can make use of the emotions fieldwork generates within them to deepen their understanding of the communities they study.
Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction Set in Thailand, a brilliantly original and page-turning first novel of anthropologists, missionaries, demon possession, sexual taboos, murder, and one obsessed young American reporter. When his girlfriend takes a job in Thailand, Mischa goes along for the ride, planning only to enjoy himself as much as possible. But when he hears about the suicide of a young woman, Martiya van der Leun, in the Thai prison where she was serving a life sentence for murder, what begins as mild curiosity becomes an obsession. It is clear that Martiya was guilty, but what was it that led her to kill? 'A killer novel... A great story... You can't stop reading.' Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
The transition from academic work to a clinical focus that occurs during Level II fieldwork can be both exciting and challenging. This combination handbook and self-organizer contains a review of a variety of topics such as time management, teamwork, and occupational therapy practice issues as they relate to fieldwork success. Readers can keep track of schedules; note meetings and other must-dos; record journal entries and reflections; organize questions to ask supervisors; record suggestions and comments from supervisors; record important information about each fieldwork site; organize materials and resources; and write goals, action plans, and timelines for completion. In addition, the ""Talk It Over With Your Clinical Supervisors"" sections suggest useful questions to ask about each of the topics discussed in the book. This book can provide students with an organizational tool to help make the transition smoothly during the fieldwork experience.
`Every now and then one stumbles across a breath of fresh air and this practical research guide is certainly one of them!.. It will be no doubt refreshing for those of us who keep going to the field and who perhaps have forgotten the human dimension of research. For those who supervise students the book will be a useful source of inspiration.... I shall certainly recommend the book to any of my students' - Development and Change `Development Fieldwork is an excellent examination of and preparation for development research and will be an invaluable guide to all those entering or considering fieldwork, wherever that may be' - Progress in Development Studies `I would strongly recommend it as a field textbook across a range of disciplines and topics. The tone is thoughtful, engaging and pragmatic, with all of the chapters contributing equally to a very high quality publication. It is the best book I have read on fieldwork for a while. It is essential for anyone contemplating 'development' based study, but it also contains a great deal of value and interest to geographers, sociologists and other students working in and on the West' - Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 'This is an outstanding book, and one that all of us engaged in fieldwork in "developing countries" will want to read and doubtless re-read. Thoughtful, relevant and consistently well-written' - Professor Stuart Corbridge, London School of Economics and University of Miami 'An excellent overview of the pitfalls and problems of fieldwork in remote places... elegant and enjoyable, incisive and elegant... good humoured and eminently practical - the "Lonely Planet" guide to the field' - Professor John Connell, Sydney University 'A very welcome and richly inviting review of the politics, ethics and practicalities of fieldwork, Development Fieldwork deserves reading in many 'fields'. This will surely travel far' - James D Sidaway, National University of Singapore 'I warmly commend this guide to anyone planning or even thinking about fieldwork in the Third World. Postgraduates and academics will find it particularly good, as it not only raises an abundance of practical and logistical points but explores fundamental ethical and epistemological concerns to an unusual degree, including issues not addressed elsewhere. The clarity and attention to detail are also very welcome, as is the ease with which the book can be navigated' - Janet Townsend, University of Durham `Developmental Fieldwork provides a useful guide packed with information on practical and personal (and sometimes political) matters. As with all good `rough' guides, rather than fixing options and closing issues, the authors make it a point to suggest flexible itineraries across the terrain of the `field'. The book should in time become a well-thumbed, dog-eared volume, thrown into the haversack along with the notebook (both sorts), tape recorder, mosquito repellent, sunglasses and sturdy shoes' - Brenda S A Yeoh, National University of Singapore 'A good introductory text that will assist the novice development researcher to prepare for a new experience and will also provide a timely reminder for more experienced researchers' - Evaluation Journal of Australasia Development Fieldwork provides an indispensable new resource and guide for all students undertaking development fieldwork in the Third World. Accessible and lively, the text: - introduces the basics of research design and methodology together with guidance on choosing the best research methods; - provides `hands on' advice (practical, personal and ethical) to those preparing to enter `the field'; - covers the initial planning and preparation stages to end writing up and tips for the successful resumption of life back home. The authors draw upon a rich and diverse set of fieldwork experiences across the developing world (rural and urban) and utilize case studies to illustrate the many common issues and challenges that will face both new and experienced fieldwork researchers. It will be an essential text and companion to all postgraduate and research students across the social sciences.
"Required reading for anyone about to leave for the field. . . . A timely, deserving, and original contribution to a rapidly growing body of literature on the study of violence."—Jean-Paul Dumont, George Mason University
Leaving the field gathers various accounts of ethnographers leaving their field sites. In doing so, the book offers original insights into an often-overlooked aspect of the research process; the ethnographic exit. The chapters variously consider situations in which the researcher must extricate themselves from field relations, deal with unexpected or imperfect ends to projects, or manage situations in which ‘the field’ becomes hard to leave. Whilst the chapters are firmly focussed on ethnographic exits, they also provide more general methodological insights into the conduct of fieldwork and the writing of ethnography, as well as questioning established notions of ‘the field’ as a bounded setting the researcher straightforwardly visits and then leaves. The book highlights the importance of recognising ethnographic exits as an essential part of the research process.
Anthropologists are affected by and affect others through emotional engagement; they “manage” emotions or allow them to unfold as vehicles of understanding. The contributors to this volume argue that participant observation is an embodied relational process mediated by emotions. If fieldwork is to attain its fullest potential, emotional reflexivity must complement the wider reflexive task of anthropologists. This makes particular demands on the training of anthropologists, and the contributors to this volume propose new ways of practising emotional reflexivity (such as radical empiricism) that enhance anthropological knowledge. Emotions in anthropology are explored from a variety of methodological and theoretical standpoints, drawing on fieldwork in Nepal, the UK, Taiwan, Russia, India and the Philippines.
What is it like to be an anthropologist or, more specifically, a woman anthropologist? Here we see highly trained and qualified women anthropologists examining their own efforts to live and work in alien cultures in many parts of the world. New chapters have been added to this ground-breaking volume, and each contributor is, in one way or another, a pioneer. All have chosen to devote their lives and energies to the understanding of worlds not their own. All have felt it important to explain what they do, why they do it, and how they feel about their work. Cultures vary widely in their perception of a woman engaged in anthropological field work. Each of these women has had to deal with the influence of her gender, as well as the subject of her study, on the mechanics of establishing a living-working relationship with people of another culture. The diversity of their responses to the presence of a foreign woman at work in their midst gives the book an invaluable cross-cultural perspective, as does the great variety of reactions and strategies on the part of the authors themselves. Besides providing rare insight into field work in general, Women in the Field mirrors the difficulties and delights of any person thrust into an unfamiliar culture.
"Other field researchers, who usually convey their craft only through one-on-one apprenticeships, should follow Whyte's lead and try to create their own vicarious apprenticeships through candid backstage accounts of their judgment calls in the field. . . . This book gives seasoned investigators an excuse to rethink what they take for granted and to see, step-by-step, how their practice compares with that of another seasoned person. Most people will welcome the chance to do this because of a final characteristic in this book, its even-handed tone." --Journal of Contemporary Ethnography "Useful for a better understanding of the character and promise of ethnographic research." --Journal of Communication "Goes beyond statements of principles to give a realistic picture of problems encountered by the field researcher." --Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique A highly regarded field researcher tells how he has plied his craft for the past 50 years. William Foote Whyte, in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen, describes the successes--and failures--he has had in studying street corner society in Boston, oil companies in Oklahoma and Venezuela, restaurants in Chicago, worker cooperatives in Spain, factories in New York State, and villages in Peru. With the goal of taking readers into the field with him, Whyte discusses and dissects his chief tools--participant observation and the semistructured interview. He also explains how to evaluate and analyze field data, why the use of local history in social research is valuable, and the ethics of fieldwork. Whyte focuses on four general problems that have plagued his career as a researcher:
